The phone rang and it was a female college student calling to interview me for a paper she was writing for a class and an article in a magazine. She found my name through social media marketing. The interview was about pay inequality facing women and how to change the situation. “Was I game to answer the questions?” she asked. “Yes, I was!” I responded.

We began with my entrepreneurial background and mission inspiring women to support other women in business, sports, equality and life. I explained how over 23 years I arrived where I am today sharing wisdom and inspiration on why women need to support each other and how my company Women TIES was created to help female business owners across New York State reach out to each other, connect and do business together to increase their revenue. “If there isn’t a pay equality law, I tell women to use my marketing platform to help them buy from each other and put money in the hands, bank accounts and pocketbooks of women first and foremost,” I explained.

Her questioning then turned to how professional women could make the same wages as men. She heard Syracuse University female professors were paid less than male professors and she wanted to know why and how to change it. As part of her research, she called 50 professors asking them to disclose their salaries based on her project. No one would give her the information. I told her it could be because they aren’t allowed to reveal it or they are private about what they earn. Either way, until there is a Pay Equality law passed where institutions must pay men equal to women, the situation may not change.

In the early 1900s, women could not wish they could vote; they need a law to be passed to make voting legal for women to vote. I believe that is the same for the wage gap in America today. It can’t be left to organizations to pay women equal to men, it must be a law enforced to make it happen.

In August, I helped promote and attended the First Women’s Equality Weekend Conference produced by Crewomen.org and learned if the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) could be passed in just two more states; women could gain equality in more areas in life. I shared this with the student and asked her to learn more about the ERA for her paper.

In case you do not know the history, the proposed Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) states that the rights guaranteed by the Constitution apply equally to all persons regardless of their sex. After the 19th Amendment affirming women’s right to vote was ratified in 1920, suffragist leader Alice Paul introduced the ERA in 1923 as the next step in bringing “equal justice under law” to all citizens. In 1972, the ERA was finally passed by Congress and sent to the states for ratification. The original seven-year time limit was extended by Congress to June 30, 1982, but at that deadline, the ERA had been ratified by only 35 states, three states short of the 38 required to put it into the Constitution.

If there is anything women can do today to help pass the ERA it is to ask their state representative how they feel about passing the ERA, supporting candidates who want to pass it and ensuring the passage of it happens. When it finally passes, women will have more equal rights to men including closing the wage gap.

Thanks for writing this article Tracy. We must all realize that we cannot rely on the “good graces” of companies to do what they should have been doing all along…paying women and men equally for the same work. While I am fully aware that there are companies that do so even without the law being passed and/or enforced, there are many more that do not and will not unless forced to. That is what we must fight for….not only for ourselves but for our daughters, granddaughters, and every other women now and for years to come!

You are so right Kim! A man commented on the post on Facebook saying his wages are changed once women get equal pay. I told him to fight for keeping his own wage rate while helping women too or sticking up for the men in his company this happens too. Everyone is affected but equality is a must!

It is always interesting to me when people comment against equal rights for others because they fear their own rights will diminish. That astounds me! The word “equal” itself should be the key. It means no one is “less than”!